The invention concerns a harvesting machine with a crop intake arrangement that can be reversed in order to remove a jam and/or the intrusion of undesirable materials, and that is equipped with a supply element, whose position can be changed from an operating position to a non-operating position.
In combines, forage harvesters and other agricultural harvesting machines, various differing front attachments, for example, pick-up and cutter platforms or heads, are used to supply the harvested crop material. Hold downs attached to the pick-up in various configurations or the reel attached to a cutter platform for grain crops on a combine provide for an improved intake and thereby the uniform processing of the harvested crop. In the state of the art, forage harvesters are protected as a rule against damage or destruction of the knife drum or other significant components by metal detectors. If a reversal of the crop intake arrangement becomes necessary due to the response of the metal detector, the hold down must be raised so as to avoid interference with the ejection of the harvested crop. With an unexpectedly high crop supply, the crop intake arrangement can encounter jams particularly if the full power capability of the machine is utilized. In this case, a reversal of the crop intake arrangement is also necessary which requires the raising of the reel of a combine or the hold down of a pick-up. The raising must be performed by the operator most appropriately before the reversal or simultaneously with the start of the reversal process. As a rule, separate known operating arrangements are provided for the reversal and the raising of the reel or the hold down, which makes the operation relatively cumbersome.
In EP-403 889 A, it is proposed that a reversing gear and an arrangement for the removal of a hold down from the operating region of a collecting drum be controlled by a common switch. However, the raising of the hold down will not be desirable in all cases in which reverse operation is performed. Since the hold down is raised only with the activation of the reverse operation, it is also conceivable that crop may jam at the beginning of the reverse operation. This condition would not be feared if the hold down had been raised earlier, however, this is not possible with the control arrangement described.
The problem underlying the invention is seen as that of the known harvesting machines having reels or crop hold downs which do not operate in an entirely safe or efficient manner especially when the feeding of crop must be reversed.
According to the present invention, there is provided an improved arrangement for use with a harvesting machine which ensures free ejection of crop or metal from the machine by reversing crop feed elements of the intake arrangement.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a harvesting machine, as discussed above, equipped with a jam sensor and/or an undesirable material detector which each produce a signal when a jam or undesirable material is present, and to use this signal in a control arrangement, such as to cause a reel or a crop hold down to be moved to a non-operating position so as to permit the free flow of crop and/or undesirable material upon reversal of the crop feed elements.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a harvesting machine, as defined in the immediately preceding object, wherein the control arrangement is coupled for receiving a timing device signal so as to effect operation to block movement of the reel or crop hold down to their respective non-operating position unless the signal indicating a jam or the presence of metal persists for a predetermined time interval.
Still another object of the invention is to provide controls whereby an operator may take overt action for overriding the movement of the reel or crop hold down to their respective non-operating position.
These and other objects will become apparent from a reading of the ensuing description together with the appended drawings.